Comm455/History of Journalism

By: Jessica Farley

If your vote for Barack Obama meant that you could watch Will Ferrell eat garbage, would you do it?

As the dust settles around one of the most media-saturated election seasons to date, it has become clear to many that this election would not have been the same without a few celebrity players.

Ferrell is just one of a host of celebrities who have opened up about their political standing this election season. For years, in fact,  various celebrities have lent their names and faces to political candidates in hopes of swaying votes in their direction.  This election season was no different, with starlets glittering amongst the crowds at the national conventions, various fundraisers, and benefit concerts, to name a few.

TheDailyBest.com recently comprised a list of the 20 most valuable celebrity endorsements to the 2012 Presidential campaign. As one might presume, all of the list makers were supporters of President Obama, save the taker of the number one spot- Donald Trump (although his title of “valuable” is certainly up for debate by many…).

Other notables included hip hop power couple Jay Z and Beyonce (ranked 9 and 8 respectively), day time talk show personality Ellen Degeneres (7), pop star extraordinaire Katy Perry (5), and the legendary actor Morgan Freeman (20)- all of whom threw their celebrity pull behind Obama.

On a side note, however, Ferrell and his “garbage-eating” ploys failed to crack the top 20.

The rankings were compiled based on several key factors: newspaper coverage rank, television news rank, online news rank, Twitter exposure rank, Google rank, total funds contributed to campaign, and total funds raised for campaign.

But, one can’t help but question, how much good do celebrity endorsements actually do for a candidate?

If The Daily Beast results are any indication, it seems like celebrity endorsements certainly do have some pull in who ends up in the Oval Office.